USA accents are more complicated than UK ones - after all, it's a much bigger country. I am merely suggesting that whatever country this chap comes from (and if it is in fact Germany, maybe his accent's plausible - I have only heard him speak on your own somewhat distorted link-up, and he sounded vaguely Mexican to me), he just doesn't come across as being highly technically educated in the English language. I've got a modest degree of education in that area myself, and he really does sound as though he speaks ordinary English pretty well, but he falls down on obscure technical terms that somebody with real qualifications should know.
And as for going to the same school as you - well, I have very little knowledge of the people in the years above and below me, and if I think about those two or three years distant from me, I haven't a clue. It's the oldest trick in the book! Indeed, with our somewhat arcane UK education system, official old school ties from exclusive colleges used to be one of the main weapons in the arsenal of any con-man, before the class system pretty much disintegrated (though if you can manage it, there's still a certain kudos to be had from technically being a bishop - just ask Sean Manchester!). If I claimed out of the blue to be some random pupil at your school, though not in your year, would you check it all that thoroughly? Of course not. Most people wouldn't. That would just make you paranoid, wouldn't it?
This guy is suspiciously close to you in a plausible way that you almost certainly won't check, and once he's on the air, it's all about trying to come up with plausible excuses as to why you can't check his alleged sources, or totally fictitious sources that might just pass muster if you don't make a fuss right there and then (starship references in the Rosenberg trial, for example). It's classic smoke and mirrors stuff, and on most paranormal radio shows, it would have worked, because they just don't care. This is all about selling books, isn't it?
OK, if on a good audio connection he sounds German to you, maybe his name really is Aaron Kaplan. I must admit to having a mental picture throughout the interview of Mario Brega's character in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, who was inexplicably called Wallace. But every single thing about him seems incredibly dodgy, to the point where I believe nothing he says about himself other than the fact that he's almost certainly male. If he turns out to be a secret Zulu with a bizarre lesbian Jesuit agenda, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
That's the trouble with this entire field. Anyone can say anything under the blanket excuse of "government cover-ups", so beyond a certain level of implausibility, anyone who cannot prove conclusively that they are who they say they are is probably another of John Grace's and Tim "I am Mr. UFO! - look at me! - look at me!" Beckley's sockpuppets, except that at least Valdemar Valereian and Commander X know their subject, so one level down. Which is one level up from Skooby Doo, if even that.
All I'm saying really is that there has to be some basic standard of credibility which guests have to conform to. I've met random blokes in the pub who could have put on a better show than Aaron Kaplan, without believing any of it for a second. I could probably do it myself, if I could keep a straight face (unlikely). And if you give me a couple of weeks I could bash out a book at least as good as his. Three weeks and it might even be better. No, scratch that - one week, if I actually cared. But if I find myself automatically doubting the nationality of a guest, not because I have a big problem about certain nationalities, but just because he's telling such feeble lies about everything that I automatically assume he's even lying about his own race, presumable to escape from a previous lie...
Well, you see what I mean. don't you? There comes a point where it just gets silly.
